Run 14½km

PM. Run 14½km: 5k with Jules + 9½km, steady easy, HR140(156)

My lower legs and shins were still fairly stiff, but Jules was going out for a run and it seemed silly not to take the opportunity to go out with her. My resting heart rate’s dropped to 48 today, which is more like it usually is, so the last 36 hours easy has given my body a chance to bounce back from the recent bout of training. The run went OK. After half an hour I said goodbye to Jules and went on another longer loop. Saw a fire engine going out on my way back home – only just after 6pm on bonfire night and already people are getting into trouble.

73.9kg

Swim 3200m

AM. Swim 3200m/52 steady

Steady swim this morning. I had in mind to go for a run after work, but wasn’t keen after yesterday’s effort and took the evening off. My lower legs are feeling pretty sore with the sudden increase in mileage anyway. Spent the evening faffing about with various bikes and my trike, but didn’t finish all the little jobs I’ve got to do on them. Oh, for a tame mechanic at my service.

73.4kg

Run 10km + Erg 11km (5×1500m)

Lunchtime. Run 10km/49, steady, HR150(159)

Managed to dodge the showers and head out for a rubbish run, my legs felt like lead, barely 8 min/miling. I’ve noticed that I’ve picked up an annoying dry cough over the last day or so – a leftover symptom of last month’s cold.

PM. Erg 11km inc. 5×1500m (5min rec.)

2km w/u
1500m: 5:35.6 (1:51.9) r25 HR153(160)
1500m: 5:35.4 (1:51.8) r25 HR154(164)
1500m: 5:35.5 (1:51.8) r25 HR156(166)
1500m: 5:35.0 (1:51.7) r25 HR157(166)
1500m: 5:33.1 (1:51.0) r26 HR159(169). average 5:34.9 (1:51.6)
1.5km w/d

Steady enough erg – session nicked from the “Pete Plan” – each rep. started out fast and settled to 1:52 pace. I only pushed it on a bit in the last rep. Nowhere near my recent best for this session, which is somewhere around 1:49 average, but good enough for the moment. Still coughing nicely.

74.5kg

Cycle 28km (turbo)

PM. Cycle 28km/1:01:03 (27.5km/h) Steady turbo, HR144(154)

Lower legs a bit hammered from yesterday’s long run, but other than that I seem to have got away with it. Sat on the turbo trainer for an hour after work, just spinning the stiffness out.

74.5kg

Run 22km

AM. Run 22km/1:46, steady plod, HR156(164)

The weather forecast for Sunday was dire, so I’d pencilled in a long run for today. I’ve not done much running lately (the last six weeks I’ve run 0km, 7km, 0km, 7km, 0km, 18km), but I was hoping that the mileage I’ve done over the whole year would enable me to pick up the distance work quickly.

I think I got a bit spooked by the wind and rain outside, because as soon as I’d run to the end of the road it felt like I was wearing slightly too much – I had on a long sleeve top and 3/4 length tights, when some shorts would’ve been OK. I ran at a very steady plod, it felt like a long time to be on my feet and the wind was very strong at times, but I got round. A good confidence booster. I didn’t have energy to do much else afterwards.

74.6kg

October summary

Run 58km/6 sessions
Cycle 467km/6
Swim 5200m/2
Erg 30km/4
Weights 2:00h/2

Hours per week: 6:10
Rest days 16

If you’re going to have a slack month in the year, October might as well be the one. The month started with the continuation of the cold I picked up at the end of the previous month and although I started to feel slightly better after a week it bit back and I ended up taking 16 days off training and putting on quite a bit of weight. The cold meant I didn’t do much productive stuff around the house etc. as I’d have liked. It probably did me good to have a bit of a break though, but the combination of the cold and the calf muscle I strained at the end of the Chippenham half marathon meant I missed out on a run in the Leicester marathon. I was hoping to be able to use some leftover fitness from the end of the season to get me round it.

I’m picking it up again now, a couple of +11 hour weeks have straightened my training out and I’ve entered the Luton marathon (http://www.lutonmarathon.org.uk/)  – I’d really like to get round one before I start on the serious work of preparing for Roth Ironman. It’s been 26 years since I last ran a marathon and I’m not looking to be too competive – a “good for age” London Marathon sub-3:15 would be plenty enough (7:26 min/mile).

Cycle 78km + thoughts about my arm in 2003

AM. Cycle 78km (47km with Jules + 31km) Steady easy. HR127(162)

Went out with Jules for an easy spin, and then did another brisk hour on my own. Still quite mild outside.

Fix me
We watched the BBC Horizon programme “Fix Me” the other night (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nnkqm). It used young people who have health problems that could be fixed by stem cell research to show the state of current developments and the way that they could be used to help them. When I saw Anthony with the amputated leg and he said that he’d lost it by breaking it in a rugby game, I immediately thought that it must’ve succumbed to a secondary infection. Sure enough, when he got the chance to tell his story, that was what’d happened. The break had needed external fixators, but a secondary MRSA-type infection got into the bone and it couldn’t be healed and eventually his lower leg was amputated – pretty extreme for what must, initially, have been a relatively simple emergency condition.

This was a situation I got very close to in 2003 when I broke my left arm in a road race and an infection got into it which blew up a few weeks later. He tried to describe how agressive the treatment was, but I know from my experience in 2003 that it’s very tough. After a series of operations to clean things up inside my arm, I was given very strong antibiotics – initially through a vein in my other arm, but that collapsed it (!) (it’s still missing, you can see it in my right forearm), so then through a tube that went directly to one of the biggest veins near my heart where, when injected, the drugs wouldn’t be so close to the vein walls to damage them. I felt ill all the time and every “edge” of my skin, e.g. around my fingernails, nose, corners of my mouth, etc. got very red and sore. Even after the I.V. antibiotics I spent another 6 to 8 weeks on Amoxycillin.

Seeing Anthony with his amputuation now makes me realise why the doctors were so quick to act in my case, and although they made me aware at the time it could be quite serious, they didn’t actually let me know I could’ve lost that arm. I am very relieved I still have almost full use of it (it’s slightly longer than the right arm now, and can’t rotate to the same degree – tricky when typing but OK when I play the piano), and just some nasty scars to show, and some titanium to carry around. I was lucky and evidently in good hands! Some time later I was asked if I’d like to have the plates removed, but it would’ve meant yet another full anaesthetic and I didn’t think it was really worth it – I could also potentially get infected again, although removing the hardware apparently reduces further complication risk by 90%. It’s been a long time now and I doubt I’ll have anything done to it now.

73.4kg

Erg 7km inc. C2 Challenge 1609m

Lunchtime. Erg 7km. Inc. C2 Challenge 1609m (http://www.concept2.co.uk/challengeseries)

2.4km w/u
1609m/5:40.3 (1:45.8) r29, HR163(170)
3km w/d

Popped home at lunchtime to have another go at this month’s challenge series event – the mile. I went 7 seconds faster than Monday’s effort, so I’m pretty happy with that although it’s still a few seconds off what I think I could ultimately do. I was so tempted to handle down in the last 300m, but also determined to see it through. Perhaps it would’ve been more productive to have done some intervals in Monday’s erg.

Before I started I took some more HR tests, to compare back to Tuesday 20th [The last results are in brackets]:

Rest HR = 59 [65] Plenty of improvement there!
Orthostatic (standing) HR = 65 [80] Also much improved.
Polar Ownindex = 57 [56]
HRmax = 184 [185]

We went down the pub after work for a few pints, had a good time.

74.2kg

Swim 3200m + run 9½km

AM. Swim 3200m/51, Steady

Pool pretty crowded when I first got in, not helped by some slow, very tanned old bloke paddling in the fast lane who wouldn’t let anyone past him at the turn. I was overtaking him every 5 or 6 lengths, so it was trouble. You’d come up behind, run into his feet and then wait for the last 5 m before sprinting past and trying to turn around him, but he’d try and turn with you and end up trying to swim over you for a bit. Fortunately the lifeguard spotted his antics and had a word. After that it wasn’t so bad. I got kicked in the chest from a woman in the next lane today too – plenty of random swimming! The swimming club got out after I’d done about half my distance and we got more lanes to swim in after that, so the last 20 minutes or so were more relaxed.

PM. Run 9½/53, steady easy. 3.7k with Jules + 5.9k. HR137(157)

Went out after work with Jules. She was doing 3 x 7min run/2min walk. Then I did another small loop on my own after that. Right hamstring slightly sore behind the knee from yesterday’s long ride.

73.9kg

Cycle 118km

PM. Cycle 118km/3:56 (30.0km/h). Winslow + back, Brisk. HR 144(168), ascent 680m

Lovely afternoon for a bike ride, and I’d booked it off work. Took my favourite winter route out to Winslow and back. Although I should be building steady base miles I ended up going fairly hard, just about knocking the ride off in under 4 hours. I started out in a gilet and armwarmers but they soon got demoted to my back pockets – who’d have thought I’d be working up a sweat in shorts and shirt at the end of October! Absolutely stuck to the road for the last hour or so, but pleased to be finding fitness of a sort. I’ll sleep well tonight.

74.0kg